My City: Mr. Finley Does Sin City Proud

For most of the world Las Vegas is a desert paradise full of bright lights, beautiful women and blackkjack tables full of flowing cash, but life for resident of Sin City can be far different. Behind the flashing lights lies a city filled with real people, people like Mr. Finley. Now signed to Def Jam, Finley is at the forefront a growing movement of artists determined to prove that Vegas has more than gambling to offer the world, its got some pretty dope hip-hop as well. In this edition of our My City series, Mr. Finley reveals what life's like for real Vegas residents and explains why, despite how famous he gets, he could never call any other place home.

RefinedHype: You come from Las Vegas, a city known more for its bright lights than its hip-hop scene. What's life like in Vegas behind the flashing lights?

Mr. Finley: Life in Vegas behind the flashing lights is dark for real - for lack of a better word. It’s not too much away from the strip that’s good. Nearly every part of town, unless you live in the part of town with gated communities and you own private property – which is way out by the mountains, everywhere else is a bad part of town. The bad parts used to be the west side and north town, and a little bit on the east side, but now it’s up in Summer Winds, which used to be the good neighborhood like 4-5 years ago. Now that shit is just swarming with crime. It’s like everything is just high crime orientated and either you working on the strip or you into something illegal pretty much. That’s the only way you gone come out up to be able to pay your bills out here because everything is expensive as shit. You’re either hitting the strip and working 12 – 18 hour a days type shit, getting all your tips up or you gone have to push something.

RefinedHype: Your sound's been compared to everyone from Outkast to 2Pac. How has Vegas influenced your music?

Mr. Finley: Vegas influenced my music really to the level that the average Vegas nigga - that operates like me – operates off basically five hours of sleep – if you lucky. So it’s like whatever you doing – it’s non-stop, you’re always on the clock out here because everybody’s always up, so it’s like I’ve applied that to my work ethic really. It’s like… if I’m at the studio and if I’m not done with what I came there to do, then I’m not fucking leaving. I will be up and I will be at that shit until it’s done.

RefinedHype: It seems like most rappers looking to break into the industry move to L.A., Atlanta or New York. Did you ever consider leaving your native Nevada?

Mr. Finley: Yeah I did. I tried the moved to L.A. for like a month but I didn’t feel that I fit in with the California music scene. It’s like California nigga’s talk about California living, and Vegas niggas… we similar in certain ways and all, but we different in a whole lot of ways also. So like even though I can go out here and rap, I still wanted to be somewhere were people know really exactly what I was talking about at the time. I can’t act like I’m tricking on the beach and all of that, ain’t no beaches or nothing like that around here, so it’s like I had to be somewhere to speak the truth that applies to me, so that people will be able to say ok – we’ll he must be exactly about that because I know that’s how it is out here.

RefinedHype: If I'm rolling through Vegas, where can I find you?

Mr. Finley: One the west side 99% of the time, and if you run into somebody on the west side when I’m not there, I bet you can find somebody on the west side that can find me.

RefinedHype: Last words? (This is an opportunity for him to promote any new projects and say anything else that's on his mind.)

Mr. Finley: I’m finishing up the recordings for my new mixtape. It’s coming real soon. Other than that, I just want everybody to stay tuned and keep tripping for me on the net. Ya’ll will be hearing me on the radio station pretty soon and keep an eye out for “The Talented Mr. Finley” coming 2010.

To tide you over until "The Talented Mr. Finley" drops, check out two new tracks from the Las Vegas all-star, "For the Money" and "She a G" below.